As wives of Ilwaco firefighters and citizens of Ilwaco, we are exasperated over the lack of concern that the current city administration has shown toward the misappropriation of nearly $130,000 missing from the Firefighting Equipment Fund.

The purpose of the Firefighting Equipment Fund is to replace outdated fire trucks without burdening the citizens with additional taxes. In 2004, the equipment fund had a value of $298,416. By Sept. 19 of this year, the fund had dropped down to $168,794, a loss of nearly $130,000.

This fund includes payments received by the fire department for their services; i.e.: money received for equipment and man-hours at the tire fire on Loop 100 in 1996, fundraisers and city contributions.

Chief Williams asked the city administration in January to find the missing monies. The council has been dragging their feet while promising to locate the money. At the last council meeting on Oct. 9, Chief Williams again asked the council to give him the figures by the next meeting. The council gave the chief assurances that they would have those figures. Fifteen minutes after the chief left the council meeting, the council decided to push the request to December.

The current administration has shown a lack of interest in fixing this account. A council member has been looking into this mess for 10 months, and he has refused to share his findings or furnish a copy to the chief. If there is an official investigation going on, they should have the ethics and courtesy to tell the chief.

What are they hiding? Have the funds been misappropriated? Why didn’t the preceeding mayor address the problem of poor bookkeeping practices, and why didn’t he use corrective actions to cure the problem? Instead, the city has had to sit through two state audits at a cost of more than $20,000. During these audits, the State Auditor was presented only with selected records, and even these showed questionable practices. The auditor was never shown the Firefighting Equipment Fund.

The citizens of Ilwaco and the fire department need an answer.

Barb Kachel Forner and Sherry Ahlers

Ilwaco